Praise and Prayer ~ May 17, 2021

(Photo detail: Dr. Rich Gardner teaching at the True Gospel Conference in Nigeria, 2021.)

Dear FFICM Prayer Partners, 

Below you will find a prayer guide to support you as you accompany us in prayer and worship this week. May God bless your time in the quiet place with hope and peace.  

Nigeria

• Ongoing Ministry
  • Radio and TV Ministry:
    • The FFICM Nigeria team produces broadcasts designed to reach predominantly Muslim area on public radio stations with teaching about the gospel and the Bible. The teachings address myths commonly believed by Muslims and offer the truths about the Bible. Praise God for this profoundly impactful ministry! Continue to pray for the impact of those who are listening to the TV and Radio broadcasts. 
  • Protection from kidnapping: 
    • There is an ongoing risk of being kidnapped while driving on the roads in Nigeria to conferences, training events, etc. Pray for wisdom as our team maneuvers around and goes to and from the various conferences and training events. Please pray for God’s protection.  
  • Wisdom for leadership 
    • Pray for wisdom and discernment regarding all the invitations to provide FFICM’s training events. The Nigeria team continues to receive many requests and are working with leaders throughout the country to evaluate the opportunities.
    • The Nigerian Accountant hiring 
• Prayer for Current Events
  • The team is hosting two New Believer Follow-up training events this week!
    • 1) In Sumana, Kano state. Sam and Ahamad (MBB) was leading this training for 60 people, expecting more to arrive throughout the week. 
    • 2) In Tsiga, Katsina State. These events will provide training in Evangelism and New Believer Follow-up. Peter and Yusuf (the Muslim expert) are leading this training in new believer follow-up. 
      • Over 150 people today with more expected throughout the week. 
      • This event is a follow-up opportunity from the HBB conference. 
      • Pray for Baba, the leader of the HBB conference, who has been sick but in recovery. 
  • Pray for the organizing process. Pray for protection for the trainees and their families while they travel back and forth from their homes to the training. 
• Future Events
  •  There is one new believer follow-up training scheduled for next week and three new believer follow-up training events scheduled for June. 
    • Pray for the continued work happening now to prepare for these trainings.
    • Pray for both the FFICM team and the church leaders we are working with to prepare for these trainings.
    • Pray for those who will be attending. Pray that God would prepare their hearts now for what they will be learning when they attend.
  • The Nigeria team has set aside one week in early June to focus on setting up and coordinating for training events that will be held in the coming few months. Pray for wisdom as they make choices about when and where to do these new believer follow-up trainings.
• Prayer for our Ministry Partners
  • Praise: One of the MBB’s who received a solar audio Bible we provided invited a Muslim imam (religious leader and teacher) to listen to the Bible with him. The imam listened and God spoke to his heart. He decided to follow Jesus! Our team is now working to do follow-up with him and to train him. Pray for this man and that God would work in and through him.
    • Update: The MBB who attended FFICM’s conference in Kano as well as the Imam whom he led to Christ need to relocate due to persecution because of their conversion. The Imam has four wives and 12 children, all of whom may not want to leave Islam or their families. They will move to live with believers in Jos. Pray for their safety as they flee the danger. Pray for their families, for salvation, unity in faith among the family. 
  • Ongoing serious food scarcity! – Many families are not able to eat even twice a day. Due to COVID, the food production declines. Bandits are also attacking the farm workers. Due to these stresses on the Nigerian agricultural system, there is now widespread food scarcity. Pray for provision.  
  • Pray for Peter Wash, the National Director in Nigeria 
    • Peter’s final presentation for his Master’s program is next week! Please pray for Peter. 
  • Samuel Gwom – the FFICM driver in Jos who was sick last week. He is stronger now. Thank you for praying for healing and protection. He’s currently participating with the team in Kano. 

Ethiopia

• Peace and security in the nation of Ethiopia
  • There is a party election coming up in late May 2021. There are 107 parties in Ethiopia and the winning party will elect the Prime Minister. There have been rumors of wars with neighboring countries as well as much division and fighting between tribes, language groups, religions, etc. 
  • Egypt and Sudan have agreed to fight Ethiopia over the rights to water from the Nile. There is an imminent threat of open war. This has led to open violence and destruction. Please pray for reconciliation. 
• Strategic Development
  • Eskinder’s internet has failed. Please pray for the restoration of his internet access!
  • We have decided to wait on the purchase of the vehicle in Ethiopia until after the coming election (June 2021) due to the violence and destruction that is happening there at this time! We praise God for his provision of the funds and we ask for His wisdom in timing.
• Programs and Materials Development
  • Eskandir and Tesfye and Fekadu (a leader recently trained by Rich and Eskinder) will be training 40 church leaders and evangelists in Assella, Ethiopia. 
    • This event has been repeatedly postponed due to violence related to the upcoming elections. Eskandir and the team will have to use public transportation to get there. This is dangerous so please pray for them. 
    • Pray for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and guidance as they teach using FFICM’s Follow-up Booklet. Those 40 church leaders will then return to their churches and offer the FFICM Follow-up training using 300 Follow-up Booklets. 
    • Praise God for the exponential growth in new believer follow-up made possible by the excellent training and the simple, reproducible lessons contained in the material.  
  • There is a group of 80 Ethiopian women seeking training in New Believer Follow-up. We’re praying about all the opportunities presented to FFICM-Ethiopia for ongoing ministry. We are hoping to do this training just before or just after the time of the Sudan training mentioned below.
  • Elias, an Ethiopian missionary in Sudan, wants FFICM to lead a follow-up training in Sudan. The proposed date for the training has been changed a couple of times, but now it is scheduled for September. We pray that God will work out the details and give us wisdom in how to proceed. 

Cameroon

• Update from Florence – The lead coordinator for the training events we have held in Cameroon. 
  • Pray for peace and healing in Cameroon
    • May 20th is Unity Day, a National Cameroonian holiday. Pray for peace on that day so people can safely move about to celebrate. 
    • Cameroon has been suffering through a devastating civil war since 2016 and there contine to be many killings, kidnapping and torture.
    • At the start of the insurgency in Cameroon, it was declared that people needed to remain at home on Mondays. This has continued for 5 years now! Schools in rural areas have been closed for security since the beginning of the violence. 
    • In Bingo there has been a lull in shooting so expats and missionaries have begun to return. 
    • The people are suffering. The UN has been trying to send food, but the country needs peace! Pray for a divine intervention. 
  • Pray for Florence’s ministry
    • Pray for a team to work with Florence in ministry. Ministry has been very challenging in the midst of civil war when so many people are just trying to survive. 
    • Florence has felt called to build a retreat center. She’s currently raising money by selling household goods in order to have money to build the retreat center huts. Pray for funds to pay for the workers at the site. Pray for grace and wisdom. Pray for a reliable, trustworthy team of workers. 

USA

• Prayer for our Ministry Partners
  • Rick Cordell – Rick is still waiting for his passport from the local Nigerian immigration office. He needs it by tomorrow (Tuesday) in order to return to the US. Also he’s been promised that he will receive his green card sometime in the next several months. Please pray that the Nigerian immigration office does give him his green card status. 
  • Dara Searcy-Gardner, former FFICM staff — Dara continues to struggle with debilitating asthma. She asked us to pray that the medication (Xolair shots) would conquer the asthma. Pray for complete healing. 
  • Stacey Lloyd, International Director of Multimedia — Continue to pray for his family. His brother Gary has passed away. The family is praying for wisdom and comfort as they manage the challenges of the transition at this time. Pray for Arlene, his wife as she transitions to life without her husband and for Stacey as he seeks to comfort his sister-in-law and her family. 
• Pray for Materials Development
  • We plan to purchase and distribute 900 3D printed solar powered Audio Bible Players before the end of 2021 which cost $11/each (instead of the ones we were previously getting at $50/each) to distribute in Nigeria and possibly Ethiopia later this year! Pray for wisdom as we continue to move forward with this new opportunity.
  • Pray also for wisdom as we continue work on revising our new believer follow-up materials in several different languages including Urdu and Arabic. We are also looking at how to better adapt our materials for use here in the US.
• Pray for Strategic Development
  • Pray for our hiring for new FFICM staff: 
    • Development Director – Thanks to the grant we were approved for through the Murdock Trust, we are hiring a Development Director. Pray for guidance as we grow our organization to keep up with the profound global impact of our partners in ministry. 
    • Communications Coordinator – We’re looking for a part-time staff (20 hrs) to fill the role that Dara left. Pray for wisdom as we make a decision about the right person to help communicate about the amazing things we are seeing God doing around the world.
    • International Trainers – We’re looking for new team members to be trained and mentored by Rich Gardner to help us as we expand the impact of this ministry to new countries and languages as we mentor national leaders. 
  • Pray for our Virtual Spring Fundraiser — THIS Saturday!!
    • Saturday May 22 at 4pm (Pacific Time). www.fficm.org/spring2021 
    • The theme is Oaks of Righteousness. We will be sharing (via YouTube) about the impact of the three conferences in Nigeria and the mega-conference in Ethiopia this Spring as well as all the training events that have been happening as well as sharing about plans for this Summer and Fall. We will hear video testimony from our staff overseas as well as reports from our US staff. 
    • We are praying that God will provide at least $48,000 through the event, including at least 20 new monthly donors and that we will get at least 30 new prayer letter sign-ups. Pray specifically as we make calls to people who have been invited but have not yet responded. We have over 125 registrations, and are praying for at least 200.